How 'bout them trucks!

Expect anything to happen in a Craftsman Truck Series race, and the race will always produce more than you could ever expect. Whether the race is for the lead, the win, championship points, or even just to finish in the top ten, the competition level is very high, and the level of excitement is at its peak.

For the last seven or eight races, the championship battle has been between Ron Hornaday and Johnny Benson, with the points lead changing between them several times. Hornaday went into Martinsville with a 39 point lead over Benson, but ran out of fuel in the final laps, giving Benson the lead by sixty-five points. He dominated the race at Atlanta, only to be beaten by his team mate, Ryan Newman, on the last lap. This put him 33 points behind Benson.

At Texas, last week, Hornaday again dominated, and won the race, but Johnny Benson took fourth place on the last lap and maintained a six point lead. This set the stage for Phoenix.

Phoenix International Raceway is often referred to as "the speedway that acts like a short track." (Richmond is the short track that acts like a speedway.) Turns one and two are wide and banked like Lowe's, while turns three and four are tight and flat, like New Hampshire. This produces a drivers' track, and you know the drivers of the Craftsman Truck Series have to love it.

Ron Hornaday sat on the pole for the start of the race, with Kyle Busch on the outside. This was believed to give Hornaday an automatic advantage over Benson, who started in fourteenth at a track where moving up through traffic is difficult. But, before the first lap was finished, Hornaday, trying to pass Kyle Busch on the inside in turn three, lost control of his truck and hit the outside wall, then slipped down into traffic, which, including Johnny Benson's #23 truck, caused more damage.

While Benson's truck sustained only minor damage, Hornaday's had to go to the garage so the rear track bar could be replaced, the front suspension completely rebuilt, and the body work repaired as much as possible. After a laudatory effort, Hornaday later returned to the track, thirty laps down.

So, we would expect that Benson would be able to pad his lead in the points some, which he did. Until sixty laps to go, when he misjudged the line TJ Bell was taking through turn three, and ran into the #7 truck, then the wall, causing major damage to his truck's suspension.

Meanwhile, Kyle Busch and Kevin Havick were having the time of their lives racing for the lead. They are the only two NASCAR drivers who have won at least one race at the same track in each of the three top tier divisions--CTS, Nationwide/Busch, and the Sprint Cup Series. And that one track is Phoenix. Lap after lap, Harvick challenged Busch, until finally taking the lead with forty-five laps to go. Busch reported that his truck's handling was very loose as he dropped back to second place. With twenty laps to go, Busch said he felt a tire going down, but disaster was averted as a caution came out following another accident. By this time, Benson had returned to the track, but behind Ron Hornaday. It was his spin that caused the caution. Busch pitted for tires, adjustments, and fuel, and restarted in twelfth place. After the restart, Busch moved through the field like a hot knife through "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." With four laps to go, he had passed Todd "Onion" Bodine for second place, but didn't have quite enough to catch Harvick, who won the race.

With Hornaday finishing twenty-fifth, and Benson finishing twenty-sixth, there are now only three points separating the two points leaders in the Championship battle. Benson barely holds the lead going to the final race at Homestead, and, if you can believe it, Todd Bodine is in third place, 145 points behind Benson. That means that if, by another strange twist of fate, Benson and Hornaday both suffer from a similar situation to that they had at Phoenix, Bodine could take the championship by finishing in the top three. Wow!

Other notes: Where the heck did this Brian Scott kid come from? Earlier this year, at O'Reilly Motorsports Park in Indianapolis, he finished 29th. Since then, his finishes have become steadily better.The young rookie, who drives the #16 Toyota has had a career best finish in every race in which he has participated. Friday night, he finished fourth. This guy seems to have a future in NASCAR.

On the other side of the coin is John Wes Townley, another young entry level driver. Bad luck seemed to plague him in qualifying this weekend. Friday, entering turn three, he lost the front right tire. I mean lost it--it came completely off the wheel. And today, during Nationwide Series qualifying, the exact same thing happened at exactly the same place! It seems as if Somebody is trying to tell Townley something like, maybe, "With a name like John Wes Townley, you should have a guitar in your hands, not a steering wheel."

I wonder if he can sing?

Benson!

While Johnny Benson was a regular in what is now the Sprint Cup Series, we often noted that he did not seem aggressive enough to be competitive in the top series of NASCAR. It may have been equipment, but Benson never seemed to want to even try to make a pass when the opportunity presented itself. It may have been the equipment, but Benson seemed to be unable to adapt to the changes in the car that were made between 1997 and 2001.

Needless to say, when he joined the Craftsman Truck Series in 2004, we doubted that he would be successful there. Most of the regular drivers in the series failed in the Cup series because they were too aggressive. Unless the driver's name is Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, or Jeff Gordon, over aggressiveness usually results in more problems for the driver than for the competition.

But the aggressive style of drivers like Ron Hornaday, Jack Spraque, Mike Skinner, and Ted Musgrave fits right in to the relatively short races of the CTS. There is no pit strategy in CTS; it is all about mashing the pedal and turning left from the first wave of the green flag. And you do not want to be the driver of a truck that gets in the way of faster traffic. It is not the kind of racing one would expect a laid back, let-things-happen type driver like Benson to be successful.

But we were wrong about Benson. In 2004, his first season in Trucks with Bill Davis Racing, he ran in only thirteen races, but finished in the top ten eight times, with five of those eight being in the top five. He went on to win 5 races in 2006, with 13top fives out of 17 top tens, and four wins in 2007 wit 12 top fives. And now, with the Truck season barely over the half-way mark, he has two wins and leads the series in drivers' points. Benson seems to be having the time of his life.

We have written before that the CTS is the closest to Saturday night circle burners NASCAR has in its top tier.This is the kind of racing with which Benson and the others feel most comfortable. It is what they have been doing their entire lives. It is the kind of racing in which any driver who starts the race has a chance to win.

The tightness of the competition can be seen in the points standings among the top five drivers. There is a difference of only 108 points between the lead and fifth place, after thirteen races. The points lead has changed three times in the last three races. No Chase for the Championship is needed here, the points championship looks to remain tight for the rest of the season.

Personally speaking, my favorite driver in the Truck Series has long been Ron Hornaday. But I like it when Johnny Benson wins. It could be because he looks a little bit like Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges, but it is probably just because it feels good to see a driver find his place doing what he loves.

Short, but not too sweet.

Something has been bothering me since Saturday afternoon's Craftsman Truck Series race from Nashville. With three laps to go, Kyle Busch spun Ron Hornaday, and as a result dropped Hornaday from the points lead. Hornaday was justifiably angry, but most race fans should know that the incident is very similar to many other racing incidents in the series, whether Kyle Busch was there or not.

We know that "you get raced the way you race," and we have seen Hornaday give what he received from Busch many times. Nobody means to spin another driver out, but the idea is to get the lead driver just loose enough to move him out of the way. Most drivers in the Craftsman Truck Series, excepting Johnny Benson, have, like Kyle Busch, been a little over-exuberant in making such a move. In other words, Kyle Busch wasn't the first one to make such a move, and he won't be the last.

What strikes me as odd, though, is how many people have made such comments on the forums as "Schrub is going to get his a** kicked by someone in the Truck Series,"
and "he doesn't care what happens to the other drivers or who they are."

Hornaday is my favorite driver in the Truck Series, but he is no "Mr Clean." Just last year, there were many fans criticising him for being a "dirty driver," but in reality, it is his aggressiveness and lack of fear of reprisal is part of what has made the CTS so exciting to watch.

Why is Hornaday suddenly the good guy after Kyle did to him what Hornaday has done to so many others? Is all it takes to suddenly become the most popular driver is to get spun out by the Schrub?

I'm no psychologist, so I can't answer those questions, but I would like to think there is much more to liking or not liking a driver than that.

Scott Speed finds speed in transition from Formula 1

One of the things that makes racing in the Craftsman Truck Series exciting is the combination of seasoned veterans and newcomers. Unlike the Nationwide Series, few Cup teams utilize the Truck Series as a developmental stage for drivers they plan to put in a car in the near future (Noted exceptions are Roush-Fenway and Bill Davis Racing). Cup Series racing, because of the length of the races and the need for patience, takes a different set of skills than Truck Series racing, where patience is the opposite of what it takes to win a race.

That being said, possibly the best story of driver development came to fruition Friday night, as Scott Speed won his first race in NASCAR in only six starts. He was the third driver in three races to win his first Craftsman Truck Series race.

Scott Speed's racing career began at the age of seven, when he raced go-carts. From there, however, his development has been very different from that of most NASCAR drivers. After winning the Red Bull Drivers' Challenge he found himself in a ride for the FIA's GP2 Series, a developmental series for Formula 1 drivers. Placing second in championship points to non other than Niko Rossburg, in that series earned him a ride with the Red Bull team's second-string subsidiary, Toro Rosso, in Formula 1. His best finish in that series was ninth, at Monaco. He was released from the team later in 2007, but Red Bull wasn't about to give up on him.

They made a sponsorship deal with Eddie Sharp's ARCA series team to get Speed a ride in that series. He ran a few unremarkable races at the end of 2007, but he was learning the stock car. Unlike others from the open wheel series, JP Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Patrick Carpentier, AJ Allendinger, and Sam Hornish, Jr., for example, he wasn't fast tracked and thrust into a Cup ride
with only a little experience in the heavier and harder to stop cars. Scott Speed is being methodically and carefully developed.

It is paying off. Speed is young enough, at age 24, to learn new tricks, and he is quickly learning what you can and can't do in NASCAR racing. Just last week, at Mansfield, he was involved in nearly every incident on the track. This week, driving once again for Bill Davis Racing, he avoided trouble and did what he needed to do to get to the front, something even the seasoned veterans have trouble doing in the Truck Series.

Red Bull plans to put Speed in a Cup ride near the end of this year, but only for the purpose of experience and training. Right now, Speed is concentrating on winning the ARCA championship, which would be quite a feat for a driver who previously had no interest in stock car racing.

In a post race interview, as reported by Motorsport.com, Speed talked about his development and his attitude:

"To be honest, whether we win or not, it doesn't really affect my confidence. I don't let results control how I feel about myself - - I have said it a thousand times. Today we had a good strategy and we had an awesome truck. We got everything we could out of it. If our truck was a fifth place truck and we did the race and finished fifth, I would be just as happy with myself. The hats off to the team, they're really the ones that won this race. I'm pretty confident that anyone in this truck at the last 50 laps after the pit stop would have done exactly the same thing. For me, I'm learning step by step -- it's going to be a long process and just to have the experience to know what to do on the trucks or on the cars when I go to the COT (Car of Tomorrow), you can't just learn it right away. It's something you have to feel and something you have to learn. The learning curve I've had has been amazing and I've learned a ton everywhere. Every time I go out onto the track for a race, I definitely come away feeling a lot of experience and knowledge. I'm certainly looking forward to continuing on and of course looking forward to my first Cup race, but I'm not in any rush. I'm having the time of my life just coming over here and trying to learn this sport. It's awesome and Red Bull is giving me an incredible opportunity to do this and my hats off to them. Without them, none of this would have been possible."

We can't say at this point that Scott Speed is the next big star, but it seems that everything is going right to reach that goal. Red Bull seems to be doing something right.

More "pure speculation" on my part, this time.

In spite of all my initial pessimism, skepticism, and cynicism toward the early attention given Tony Stewart's racing or non-racing future, Rev'Jim's RantsnRaves finds itself sucked into the speculation game, hip waders and all.
The blame for this can be put squarely on Randy Moss' entry into the business of NASCAR Truck Series team ownership.
Moss isn't just a NASCAR fan with a lot of money. According to the article he is already somewhat involved in racing:

The interest in racing isn't new to Moss, a 1998 first-round draft pick out of Marshall. He sponsors a local dirt track program in his native West Virginia and serves as a goodwill ambassador for the Urban Youth Racing School headquartered in Philadelphia.

Moss seems to know what he is doing, contracting with Integrety Sports Marketing Group to help him kick start the team and find sponsors, team members, and a manufacturer.

He also told ESPN's NASCAR Now that he has talked to Joe Gibbs for advice and guidance.

Building a successful team means "putting the right people in the right place doing the right things."

If that sounds like Tony Stewart talking about his management at Eldora Speedway ot his Tony Stewart Racing team's success in World of Outlaws and USAC, it is. But, it is also the exact words Randy Moss used on NASCAR Now, Wednesday afternoon while discussing his chances for success as a truck series owner.

Tony Stewart has been listening to offers from other teams, some of which include a partial team ownership, and has described these offers as "exciting."

In statements to the press last week, Joe and JD Gibbs made it clear that such an offer was not in the works for Stewart, if he were to stay with JGR. However, "Our [ownership] deal is set the way it is," Gibbs said. "But we could do some stuff to help him get started with his own team if that's what he really wanted."

Until 2003, JGR fielded a Truck Series team for Coy Gibbs, who gave racing a try then decided he wasn't cut out for it. It is logical to assume that "some stuff" may include supporting a Tony Stewart team in the Truck Series. To those of us who have paid attention to Smoke over the years, it is unlikely that he would be involved in team ownership on the Cup level while racing full time. But if he were to have ownership in the Truck Series, that may be a different story.

If Tony Stewart decides to stay with Gibbs, to race full time until he turns forty, there seems to be an opportunity here for a possible "Stewart-Moss" Toyota team in the Truck Series in 2009. Can you see it?

Maybe not, but the speculation is fun, even without "unnamed sources." And if it actually comes to pass, remember you read it here first.

Plot twists welcome!

We all love a good plot twist. Movies such as The Usual Suspects, The Four Brothers, and The Illusionist keep us enthralled because of their intricate plot twists. And so, we were enthralled with the plot twist involved in Friday night's Ford 200 CTS race at Homestead.
The story started with us thinking that the Championship points leader, Mike Skinner, had a significant advantage over second place competitor Ron Hornaday. Skinner went into the race with just a small points lead over Hornaday, but he qualified forth. In fact four of the five top starting positions were held by Bill Davis Racing, Skinner's team mates. But, to thicken the plot a little, team mate and new "bad boy" Johnny Benson reminded us in a pre-race interview that, though the team was there to help Skinner win the championship, they were all out to win the race.
One thing we love about the drivers in the Craftsman Truck Series is that they are all "bad boys."
So, as the race started, Skinner quickly gained points on Hornaday, who had started further back in the field and had to deal with the three and sometimes four-wide traffic that is a familiar feature in NASCAR truck racing. Skinner increased his lead in points by taking the race lead. But then, the first plot twist--Skinner felt that he had a tire go down, and abrubtly slowed and pitted for a two tire change, putting him a lap down. Still, though Hornaday now had the points lead, Skinner could easily make up positions, and even race his way back to the lead lap.
But that wasn't to happen. Skinner's #5 team had changed the right side tires, and it was the left rear tire that fell off. Because of damage to the left rear hub, the truck had to go to the garage area for extensive repairs,
But, all was not lost. Even though he was eleven laps down, Skinner only had to be twelve place positions behind Hornaday in order to win the championship. If as few as five trucks behind Hornaday wrecked, or had mechanical failure, Skinner would be the 2007 CTS Champion. As the laps wound down, Hornaday's only team mate, Kevin Harvick, fell off the pace, due to a tire going down. That was one. We watched, with four laps left, to see if Hornaday could hang on to his spot, or if the big one would happen as expected.
And, with two laps to go, there was a spin and a caution.
But it was only one truck, and he did not wreck. Still, after the restart, for the Green/White/Checkered finish, the guys up front were racing three and four wide. If any of them had wrecked, however, it wouldn't have helped Skinner anyway, unless, of course, Hornaday got caught up in the wreck.
The wreck didn't happen. Kyle Busch and Johnny Benson raced hard for the win, and in the end it was Johnny Benson who found victory. So, though Bill Davis Racing didn't get the championship, they did get a win to finish the season. Ron Hornaday won the Championship, becoming the second driver after Jack Sprague, to win three CTS Championships. Another interesting plot: Jack Sprague will be Hornaday's team mate on Kevin Harvick Incorperated's team next year.
So, we give congratulations Ron Hornaday, Jr and KHI for winning the 2007 CTS championship, to Johnny Benson snagging his fourth victory of the year, and to all the drivers and teams in the CTS for bringing us yet another incredibly entertaining season.
So, now the stage is set for Sunday's grande finale for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Jimmie "Ernie" Johnson, eighty nine points ahead of Jeff "Darth" Gordon, has the pole. It seems that Johnson's march to the championship is unstoppable. But, in spite of his admitted "joking around" waving of the white flag of surrender, Gordon has made it clear that he will do everything he can to take back the championsip. We have to believe him, considering the incredible performance he has had during the 2007 season, and we have to believe that he could still do it.
Personally, I don't care who wins the Championship. I'm picking Matt Kenseth to win the race--it will be his last race with Robby Reiser, the only crew chief he has ever known in his NASCAR career, and that emotional incentive will add to the drive, skill, and determination he has shown over the last few races.
When it comes down to it, I want to see a good race, and maybe a few good plot twists.

Not playing nice

After watching the Craftsman Truck Series race at Phoenix last night, I realized that the Cup guys will not race like that. The CTS is unique among the major leagues of NASCAR in that these guys do not worry about how many points their team mate has.
Johnny Benson, who was in sixth place in the points, going into the race, and his team mate, points leader Mike Skinner, presented an excellent scenario emphasizing this point. At the end of the race, restarted with seven laps to go after a debris caution, there were several battles going on around the track. Kyle Busch was holding off Mike Bliss, who was doing some incredibly hard racing with Ron Hornaday without displaying his knack for poor sportsmanship, while back in the field Skinner and Benson were running seventh and eighth, respectively. Shortly after the very aggressive Hornaday passed and cleared the very aggressive Mike Bliss, Benson made the unbelievable move of passing his team mate. "What the h---," Skinner probably thought, My team mate is stealing four points from me!?!"
My thought is, why not? Because Kyle Busch was kind enough not to play favorites, and won the race himself, Hornaday would not get the winner's bonus points and Skinner would maintain his 29 point lead. What difference would four points make? Benson could find better use for them, those four points would move him up a notch in the points standings. This is CTS racing, boys, and it's every man for himself. There are, as Skinner lamented post-race, no team mates when every driver is out to get what he needs.

“I guess we’re not a team,” Skinner said. “I’m not in too good of mood right now. It’s better than being 29 points behind.
“We’re just one team, the No. 5 team. I don’t know how many teams we’re going to have to race against in Homestead.”

The CTS is the closest of the major leagues of NASCAR to the Saturday night circle burners that are still a passion of mine. All that was needed was a bar across the street from the track, where a spirited fist fight between the two "team mates" would have taken place.
Now, for Sunday, I was going to pick Jeff Gordon to win. His experience and history at Phoenix provide him what he needs to overcome Chad Knaus' genius. But then I saw this headline at That's Racin'.com:

Hendrick aiming for 1-2-3 sweep of season standings
By JENNA FRYER - The Associated Press
AVONDALE, Ariz. – With 17 wins by its four drivers, Hendrick Motorsports has clearly been the most dominant team in NASCAR this season.
Now, if Kyle Busch can close the year with two strong runs, he could give the organization a clean sweep of the Nextel Cup standings.

Now, because HMS teams do follow team orders--witness how two weeks in a row, Kyle dutifully followed the advice passed to him by both his crew chief and his boss, not to race Jimmie or Jeff, even though he couldn't be fired because he already has been--this means that Kyle Busch has to win at Phoenix. And, because he is 158 points ahead of Busch, Clint Bowyer has to have problems, which could happen, but not likely with the way his Chase has been going. But, without making any accusations, which I sincerely feel would be unwarrented, Hendrick Motorsports seems to get what it wants during the Chase, and it would be no surprise if Kyle Busch were to win at PIR, while Jimmie and Jeff stay far enough back to keep Bowyer from gaining much ground, if any, on Kyle.
And this plan leaves little room for my favorite driver.

The Weekend so far...

The main event hasn't even happened yet, and we have already seen some great racing this weekend, as well as some big news.
The Craftsman Truck Series race, Friday night, lived up to everything for which it was billed. There was plenty of action, the points lead changed again, this time drastically, and we got to see some good racing from both the veterans and the up-and-comers. The drama was definitely there. Mike Skinner now has a comfortable 57 points lead, in spite of narrowly escaping disaster in the closing laps of the race. Chad McCumbee made a bonsai move and tood the lead, but it caused some problems behind him, bringing out a caution. When he spun his tires on the restart, then tried to block--a rookie mistake--there was a big pile up behind him that included the points frontrunners, Skinner and Hornaday. Mike Skinner's damage was relatively minor, and he managed to get the necessary repairs done, and finish third, while Ron Hornaday's damage was serious, and his crew worked heroically to get his truck back on the track in time to get an eighteenth place finish. That's the kind of drama the CTS brings us on a regular basis, and that is why we think that CTS is "the Bomb." The big news in the CTS is that Jack Sprague will be joining Ron Hornaday as team mates for Kevin Harvick Incorperated in 2008. Now that's a powerhouse.
The Busch Series race also had its moments. Smoke led most of the race in a car that looked like it couldn't be beat. Well, the paint scheme could, but that's a different story. An early crash involving Mike Bliss, Jeremy Clements, and the #27 car, resulted in some very bad pit stops. Schrub's crew wasn't ready, and the delays and flub ups forced him to take two tires when he wanted four. Smoke's pit stop was also slow. Somehow, a few laps into green, Kyle Busch was in the lead, which didn't last for long, because Smoke moved up quickly on four fresh tires and easily retook the lead.
Stewart subsequently checked out, and began passing lapped traffic, until he ran into the back of Kyle Krisiloff's car. It was a racing incident, Smoke took the brunt of the damage, and had to pit to repair a hole in the "headlight area." This put him quite far back in the field. He made up positions until he got to seventh place, then apparently decided he had used as much of the car as he could, finishing in that position.
It seems that everybody who took the lead checked out. In the end, there were only 14 drivers on the lead lap, as Kevin Harvick took the checkers, with a petulant, but persistant, Schrub in second.
The big news in the NBS: Brad Keselowski finished highest among the Busch regulars-- which is good, because he is only part time--with a sixth place finish. He is showing that he deserves the recognition he has received from his boss at JMS. Bigger news: Michael McDowell ran his first Busch race for MWR. Even Bigger news: ESPN ignored the fact completely. Well, not that much bigger. Par for the course, actually.
Oh yeah, there was something about Carl Edwards winning the NBS Championship.
The winner so far this weekend: Dirt racing fans who watch Speed TV. Thanks to Bruton Smith, Speed TV, Humpy Wheeler, and WoO for such a great presentation of a great sport. I could actually smell the mud and taste the dirt in my beer. The Big News from WoO--Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) will have a powerhouse next year with Donny Schatz and Kraig Kinser on the same team.
On a serious note: Paul McMahan, current driver of the #20 TSR winged sprint car was injured by a freak accident involving the drive shaft of the car. Our thoughts and prayers are with him for a quick and complete recovery.
So now, we are primed for the Dickies 500. Here's to another great race.